A fantastic gift idea for a special Westie owner - or celebrate your own Westie in style...

West Highland Terrier art 'Westie Fun' by Lotti Brown

This is an artwork of a fantastic, friendly little Westie called Mac.

He’s a lively, happy little thing – content just to trot around, investigating smells, and keen to play with his people and other dogs. I love that this artwork shows him alert, keen, and happy. He’s a confident little thing, always ready to join in.

It’s always special to create an artwork of a happy dog, but what made this pet art even more special was getting to put into art the way that light and colours reflect off his beautiful white fur.

My artwork style is quite colourful in any case, but I chose to put loads of different colours in Mac’s fluffy white fur to show the light reflecting off the soft curls of fur as he moves around, and to show how he’s so lively and full of energy. He looks curious, eager, ready for fun and explorations.

I picked out some of the colours used in his fur for the background, and also emphasized the swirls to echo the texture of his fur.

I thought Mac would enjoy playing in the flowers, outside in the garden. I wanted to keep the background fairly low key, so that Mac stands out well, with all his colours.

As every good Westie owner knows, westies deserve to be the centre of attention! And why not, with those intelligent black eyes lurking behind the fur, and that amazing, silky white fur that contains a whole rainbow of light and colours in the movement and reflections.

Westie photoshoot

Creating Westie Art

I drew Mac from a photo I took when he visited our home – he’s lively, inquisitive, wondering what’s going on. I love how the light shines through his fur in this photo, and wanted to make more of the way light reacts against his beautiful fur.

This artwork is created from pen and ink drawings, put together digitally with an ink-painted fabric background.

I draw each element individually, which allows me to concentrate fully on capturing its form and essence. I then create the final composition from all the elements, digitally.

Take a look at the process, below... Click on any of the images to go to a full-size image view...

Starting my Westie drawing

Starting to add colour

Adding colours to the fur

Drawing flowers and foliage

Starting to create digitally

Colourful Westie!

Starting to add background layers

Adding more flowers and foliage

The completed West Highland Terrier artwork

A sparky and confident little fellow, meet his eye and you can’t help but smile. Love him and he will be your loyal companion and would follow you anywhere

Cute westie art pints and mini artboards available from my store - click to see